HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To my mom. Have a great day. I love you.

Good for me!

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time in months! I didn't stay too long, just did some time on the elliptical machine as all the climber/swing machines (I don't really know what they are called) were taken and I try to avoid the treadmill at all costs. I'm even going to try to get back on Thursday. It's time for me to get my lazy ass back into shape.

Plus, I got to watch an awesome Red Sox Classic game from 2000 when Pedro had a one-hitter:

August 29, 2000
Pitching in Tampa Bay against the Devil Rays, Pedro hit Gerald Williams to lead off the game. Williams charged the mound, where he was quickly apprehended by first baseman Brian Daubach and the rest of the Red Sox. The Devil Rays thought the HBP was intentional, and kept throwing at Daubach and the Red Sox all night. The Rays ended up with five players, the manager, and two coaches all being ejected, while no one from the Red Sox was tossed. Through it all, Pedro pitched eight hitless innings, only to have the no-hitter broken up by John Flaherty in the ninth. He struck out 13 and finished with a one-hitter.

No one warned me...

Not to read the last 100 pages of HP7 before I was supposed to go to sleep. I couldn't fall asleep for hours! I am still digesting it and wish I had re-read the first 6 before I started this one. Rowling did a good job reminding you of things you most likely had forgotten about, but I found myself wishing I had remembered every detail of the previous books. All in all, well done. And if there is another book, IMO, I can't imagine that it will be good at all.

Online games

Best way to waste time ever (and learn something)! I think Scott may have been the first one to find this, but I still love it. Especially on a Friday afternoon at 4:30.

Oh yeah, it doesn't hurt that Beethoven is the subject of one of the best movies ever.

Guitarist turned Astrophysicist

Brian May is awesome.

The Bar

Good luck today, tomorrow and Thursday LB! We're thinking of you.

Stolen from another blog

This is freaking hilarious! It's about 5 minutes, but listen to the whole thing. It's worth it! Thanks Fibby!

Red Cross

The other day a bunch of us at work had our CPR/AED refresher class. There is some new material this year, such as don't waste time to check for a pulse or the correct placement of your hands when you are starting CPR and do 30 compressions and 2 breaths for actual CPR. Also, we were treated to this lovely video upon which me and one other co-worker couldn't even watch:

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th everyone! I hope you all have fun BBQs and rain-free fireworks.

I have been at work all day since I am taking Friday off and one of the perks of my job is that it is quite flexible when it comes to switching holidays. So along with a couple other people who did the same thing as me, I have been actually working a bit. But, I also brought in my computer so that I can finish uploading my CD collection. As some of you know, this is quite a daunting task for me as I have over 300 CDs. I am pretty sure this is the last book I have to do. Currently, I have 12.3 days worth of music. This is a pretty fun task for me actually because I am reminded of how much awesome (and not so awesome) music I have and I can actually listen to it. Today I have listened to a few Grateful Dead albums, a Heart Greatest Hits, and now I am on to "Dreamland" by Robert Plant. Good stuff. Now all I need is a new computer so I don't have the annoying dying fan sound in the background as I am listening to all my new found music!

Plus, the Red Sox won today! Yeah!

The Art of the Album

So I was just telling my friend about Steve Vai. One of the most talented, inventive contemporary electric guitarists today. His first album came out in 1984 and his newest one is being released this month. When I was in middle school, I was lucky enough to have a friend who played the guitar who introduced me to all these musicians I had never heard of then, but are now, a huge part of my life, including Steve Vai. Vai is coming to Providence later this year and I really hope to get to see him.

One thing that is really great about Vai's albums is that they are true albums. The tracks make up a cohesive unit, each telling an individual story (and yes, a story can be told without words), but all having a similar feeling. This is becoming a lost art, the album. In an age where you can download a song from the CD or that soundtrack, fewer and fewer artists are putting the thought into making a complete album. Not that Vai releases concept albums (except for maybe Fire Garden), but the tracks go together. The thing about Vai is that even his compilations are true albums. He puts tremendous thought into what track should go on the compilation and writes insightful album notes for explanation. What are your favorite albums?

Seadogs and Fireworks

Yesterday we went to a Portland Sea Dogs game with a bunch of people from my work and from Sean's work and our best friends. It was really fun, the weather was good ( a little cold) and there were fireworks! There were lots of kids there, the baseball was actually pretty good, except for some horrible errors made by the Erie Seawolves (for example, the classic two guys going for a fly ball and neither calls it so it drops on the ground in between them for a hit), and the Sea Dogs pitcher was really pretty good until the 6th inning. Thanks to everyone for coming and making it a fun night.

RIP Mr. Wizard

Mr. Wizard (aka Don Herbert) passed away yesterday after battling bone cancer. He was 89. Mr. Wizard had a show on Nickelodeon when I was growing up on which he had dorky kids (much like myself) do cool science stuff. My favorite episode was when he measured how tall a tree was with a plate full of water. Science is cool!

2007 Rock Honors

So this year VH1 honored ZZ Top, Heart, Genesis and OZZY. It was a pretty interesting show with a bit of randomness:

Who is Bam Margera and why was he the host?

Billy Bob Thornton wore a jacket with shoulderpads.

Jada Pinkett-Smith was in a band that played at Ozzfest?

Nickelback played ZZ Top fantastically.

Gretchen Wilson played with Alice in Chains and sounded amazing.

Genesis didn't sound that good.

Heart still rocks and Nancy is a great performer and guitartist.

Criss Angel is a freak.

Ozzy and I have the same haircut if I part my hair in the middle.

Zakk Wylde is jacked!

Buddy is free!

Finally, Providence will have it's mayor back. And some hotel in Boston will have one of the best PR guys around. REALLY?!?

Happy Birthday Mr. Z.

Happy 66th birthday Bob Dylan. Thanks for all the great words and music.

What was your first album?

First off, if you have to ask what an album is, stop reading this blog. I was talking with one of my co-workers last night and he said his first tape was Alice Cooper. This then forced me to ask, "You never had an album?" Apparently, no, he was too young. So then another co-worker and I were reminiscing about our first albums. He couldn't remember but guessed it was a Beatles album. Mine was Graceland by Paul Simon - remember Donkey? I used to play it all the time and it had that skip in it and I didn't know the correct words to Graceland until I heard it on the radio!

What was your first album?

Happy Graduation!

My friend Ryan graduated from his Masters program at BU yesterday. Congrats Ry! I am very happy for you. And his wife Alisa just found out she has a permanent teaching job. YEAH! We can't wait to celebrate with you guys!

Fantasy Baseball

Well, this year is beginning to look like the first year I had a fantasy baseball league for me - basement dweller. I am really hoping my pitching starts to look a little better, although at this point I would take anyone to look better. I think my downfall this year was that I didn't prepare for the draft and ended up drafting players I liked rather than knew anything about their stats. Oh well, I'm still having fun as I hope everyone else in the league is.

And at least my Sox are doing great! In 1st place!

Goodbye Gilmore Girls

This week hosted the series finale of Gilmore Girls. This was a fun show about a quirky town with crazy characters centered around a mother and daughter relationship with a few hot guys thrown in (see below, although Scott Patterson is only cute with the hat on).

I really liked this show because even though it was weird it was funny, dramatic, but not overly, and it was a nice escape from all the TV with people getting blown up or competing fiercely against each other to win some crazy prize.


Plus, this week, even though it was the last episode, was extra fun to watch since my friend LB threw a GG party where we all ate like the Girls (i.e. take out chinese, pizza, chicken nuggets, ice cream, cookies, brownies, mallomars, etc.)

I thought the show was well done considering it wasn't necessarily written to be a series finale. It was funny, yet sentimental and Luke and Lorelai kissed (YEAH!) For more recaps check out:

I'm sad it's not on anymore, but at least now I can cross off another show I am addicted to.

Pandora Internet Radio

So there is this cool site: Pandora Internet Radio. You just sign up for free, tell it what artists/songs you like and it tries to create a radio station based on what you tell it. Then you can rate the songs it chooses if you like them or not and it will customize even more. You can create many stations too, so you don't have to have Aerosmith and Bach on the same station. Try it out!